Opposition manifesto nothing to shout about, says MIC leader

PORT KLANG, Feb 28 – An MIC leader has dismissed the election manifesto launched by the Pakatan Rakyat opposition pact on Monday as nothing much to shout about. Mohana Muniandy, a member of the party’s central working committee, said the manifesto did not focus on efforts to check inflation in the long term to create a vibrant society and economy.

It also failed to explain the mechanism to reduce the cost of living and make life more comfortable for the people, she said. She cited the example of a plan to abolish excise duty for cars with the aim of lowering car prices to as low as RM25,000 and asked how the opposition was going to implement that.

“The opposition is silent on how the nation will fund the plan and afford the subsidies (resulting from the reduction of car prices),” she said at a “Jom Tolak Pakatan” (Let’s Reject Pakatan) ceramah at a flat near here last night.

Mohana, who is president of Power Malaysia, a Barisan Nasional-friendly non-governmental organisation, said she felt that the opposition’s intention to abolish laws that infringed on democratic rights would not help reduce the crime rate. She also said that there no development plans for Indians in the manifesto, and added that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak had been doing a lot for the Indians over the last five years.